Chilling horror stories from the most prominent directors of the genre.

Type: Scripted

Languages: English

Status: Ended

Runtime: 60 minutes

Premier: 2005-10-28

Masters of Horror - Imprint (Masters of Horror) - Netflix

“Imprint” is the thirteenth episode of the first season of Masters of
Horror. Directed by Takashi Miike, the episode was scheduled to premiere
on January 27, 2006—but was shelved by Showtime over concerns about its
extremely graphic and disturbing content. It was later released to DVD
on September 26, 2006.

Masters of Horror - Production - Netflix

Japanese director Takashi Miike was among the filmmakers chosen to
create an episode for Masters of Horror. Considered to be a
“deliberately and spectacularly transgressive director whose work is
lionized by a substantial share of the young generation of Internet
critics and horror film fans, while routinely rejected as repulsively
sadistic by much of the mainstream media”, Miike crafted “Imprint” based
on a traditional Japanese story, “Bokkee Kyotee”, by Shimako Iwai. He
explained the reasons he chose the film: “It had a simplicity that I
liked. Also, it had that kind of story I imagined the audience telling
their friends after seeing the film. It's a story that could have been
told before the horror genre was around – it's more like a kaidan – a
traditional scary story.” It included graphic depictions of violence and
aborted fetuses, but Miike believed he was staying within the boundaries
of acceptability: “I thought that I was right up to the limit of what
American television would tolerate. As I was making the film I kept
checking to make sure that I wasn't going over the line, but I evidently
misestimated.” After previewing the episode, Mick Garris, the series
creator and executive producer, requested that it be edited to tone down
the content, but, despite some changes being made, Showtime felt it was
too disturbing to air on television. The episode, scheduled to air
January 27, 2006, was canceled and became the only one of the series to
remain unaired in the United States. It was shown, however, at the
Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in Japan on 25 February
2006 and aired in the UK on Bravo (British TV channel) on 7 April 2006.